Rays designated hitter Yandy Díaz reached 500 plate appearances on the season earlier this week. In the process, he triggered the vesting threshold in his contract for 2027. Díaz still needs to pass a postseason physical, but assuming he finishes the year healthy, he’s officially signed for next season.
That also comes with a slight salary bump. The Rays initially held a $10MM team option, but the vesting option price climbs to $13MM. It’s the highest salary of his career, a slight bump over the $12MM he’s making this season. That’s well earned, as Díaz remains one of the best hitters in the American League at age 35. He had a two-hit performance today and is up to a .302/.371/.466 slash with 17 home runs.
There was never any doubt that the Rays were going to exercise the option regardless if Díaz were healthy. He’s surely happy to lock in the slightly higher salary for what’ll be his ninth season in Tampa Bay barring an offseason trade. Díaz recently passed Ben Zobrist for third on the franchise leaderboard in hits and needs three home runs to jump B.J. Upton and enter the top five in that category.
Other teams have been trying to pry Díaz away for some time, but his salaries remain a bargain — even if a little pricey by Rays’ standards. The team has the best record in MLB and looks well on its way to entering the postseason as the #1 seed in the American League.
Díaz is the team’s highest-paid player this season. He and Steven Matz ($7.5MM) are their only players on guaranteed contracts for next year. They may have a tough decision on whether to hold or trade Drew Rasmussen, whose club option is currently valued at $11.25MM but would climb to $20MM if he avoids the injured list the rest of this year. They’re a lock to pick up the option either way but could view the offseason as the appropriate time to put Rasmussen on the trade block. They’ll pay $4.5MM in total buyouts to Nick Martinez and Cedric Mullins and will need to decide on a $3.1MM club option for Taylor Walls.
The front office can concern itself with that in a couple months. Nothing changes in the short term. Díaz will remain part of a three-headed monster atop the lineup, leading off in front of Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero.
Image courtesy of Cary Edmondson, Imagn Images.
